1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator ice maker, and more particularly to an ice-maker water supply apparatus of a refrigerator and the method thereof to conveniently control the water quantity to be supplied to an ice tray.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an ice maker directly connected to a faucet freezes the tap water with cold air into ice, and automatically separates and moves the ice formed at the ice tray to store at an ice storage container.
The ice maker, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises an ice tray (5) formed with a plurality of grooves and placed at a freezing chamber (2) divided from a refrigerating chamber (3) of a main body (1) for making ice of water supplied from a tap, and a solenoid valve (6: hereinafter referred to as a water supply valve) for being turned on/off to supply a predetermined quantity of water from a tap water pipe (4) to the ice tray (5).
A vaporizer (7) is installed at the lower right end to the ice tray (5) for heat exchanging the air blown in the freezing chamber (2) into cold air by way of the vaporized latent heat of a coolant, and a cooling fan (9) is disposed over the vaporizer (7) for being rotated by a fan motor (8) to circulate the heat exchanged cold air to make the water at the ice tray (5) into ice.
There are an ice storage container (10) under the ice tray (5) for storing the ice made by the cooling fan (9), an ice quantity detecting lever (11) movably hinged at a hinge point (12) for detecting the quantity of the ice stored at the ice storage container (10), and a micro-switch (13) installed at an end of the ice quantity detecting lever (11) for being vertically moved by the ice quantity detecting lever (11) according to the quantity stored at the ice storage container (10).
When power is applied, a micro-computer checks if an ice making condition is formed to carry out an ice making cycle at the ice maker. The ice making cycle is divided into 3 steps.
A first step of the ice making cycle is to initialize the refrigerator and to supply water to the ice tray (5), a second step is to freeze the water at the ice tray (5) into ice, and a third step is to separate and move the ice formed at the ice tray (5) to be stored at the ice storage container (10)
A conventional method to control the amount of water to be supplied to the ice tray (5) is manually set with a mechanical screw type of dial by controlling the time to supply water and with an electromagnetic type of diode options to change the time of supplying water according to a micro-computer program.
An after sales (A/S) service person checks the tap water pressure when a refrigerator is installed and manipulates a dial for setting a time to supply water at a timer, as disclosed in a water supply apparatus of the ice maker of a refrigerator in U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,746.
According to the aforementioned patent of the ice maker water supply control apparatus, if water needs to be supplied to the ice maker, water is automatically supplied by a pump through first and second electric methods during the water supply time preset at the timer, thereby achieving convenient water supply. However, there is a problem in the conventional water supply apparatus in that the water supply time is not properly set due to the problematic water pressure of the tap water source.
In addition, if the water supply time is controlled by setting the diode option, there is a problem in the electromagnetic type of the ice maker water supply control apparatus in that the diodes are to be inconveniently soldered, inserted and removed, if necessary, causing waste of time and reduction in reliability of the product.